WholeHogSports
Hogs boot LSU Arkansas takes down No. 1 in 3OT
Posted on Saturday, November 24, 2007
URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/nwat/59557/
BATON ROUGE, La. — Les Miles apparently can’t pronounce Arkansas, but Arkansas sure cast a pronounced effect on dashing Miles’ national championship hopes for his LSU Tigers.
In triple overtime Friday before a mostly exhilarated, exhausted and exasperated 92, 606 at Tiger Stadium, Arkansas’ unranked Razorbacks upended the nationally No. 1-ranked SEC West champion Tigers, 50-48 in the CBS nationally televised regular-season SEC closer.
Arkansas senior cornerback Matterral Richardson’s interception of LSU quarterback Matt Flynn’s 2-point pass for wideout Demetrius Byrd in the third overtime sealed Arkansas’ first triumph over a nationally No. 1 team since former coach Lou Holtz’s 1981 Hogs shocked Texas, 42-11 in Fayetteville.
Richardson’s pick came a play after Flynn’s 9-yard TD pass to Brandon LaFell. Felix Jones’ 2-point conversion run (after senior fullback Peyton Hillis’ 3-yard TD run to open the third overtime ) stood up as the game-winner celebrated by wildly by the outnumbered traveling fan contingent in UA red amid a parting sea of LSU purple.
It also enabled junior running back / WildHog formation quarterback Darren McFadden to make a convincing last case for the Heisman Trophy voting. McFadden logged 32 carries for 206 yards and 3 touchdowns plus a touchdown pass while the Razorbacks beat the most feared defense in the country at LSU’s self-described “ Death Valley, where only Tigers survive. ”
On CBS right after the game, McFadden, breaking his own single-season school rushing record [now 1, 725 yards ], didn’t talk Heisman so much as stressing correcting Miles’ Ar-Kansas pronunciation of Arkansas during a televised press conference last week.
“ I heard LSU on a couple of interviews say Ar-Kansas, ” McFadden said. “ They weren’t saying it right so I wanted to let them know it’s Arkansas. It’s a great feeling to come down here and beat the No. 1 team in the country. Last year we were 10-1 [and SEC West champs ] when they beat us to knock us out of any national championship game. It feels great to return the favor. ”
Give Miles credit. He did and does have pronounced respect for McFadden.
“ I know how good he was, ” said Miles, who must regroup his 10-2, 6-2 Tigers for next week’s SEC Championship game in Atlanta against either Tennessee or Georgia. “ He certainly had a Heisman performance today. We understand what this cost us and what was at stake. ”
Arkansas coach Houston Nutt gave props to Miles and the Tigers for their part in this game for the ages, but had to save the No. 1 compliment for his Hogs and McFadden.
“ You can see why LSU is No. 1, ” Nutt said. “ I have a lot of respect for Coach Miles and their team, but all I know is we were the best team in the country today. What our players and coaching staff did today down here is phenomenal. Darren McFadden is a Heisman guy. He deserves the Heisman. ”
Under perpetual critical siege it seems, by some fans and media, Nutt couldn’t help but relish that after being rumored a week ago Friday to be either resigning or on the Arkansas firing line, now to be preparing his 8-4, 4-4 Hogs for a bowl game, quite possibly the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day in Dallas.
“ How can they say I am resigning and all that ? ” Nutt said with obvious disgust. “ Where is that coming from ?”
As for the Cotton Bowl, Nutt has often said that would be particularly fitting for retiring Arkansas athletics director Frank Broyles, long in the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame for his games there as Arkansas’ head coach.
“ I hope the Cotton Bowl comes and gets us, ” Nutt said. “ But the Independence and Liberty Bowls have been watching us, too. I’m excited about all the bowls. ”
Cotton Bowl executive director Rick Baker said, “ The Razorbacks certainly played their way back on to our radar screen. ”
Nutt may never be more excited though, than beating No. 1 in Baton Rouge, with three OTs after Byrd’s 2-yard TD grab from Flynn tied it 28-28 with 57 seconds left in regulation.
Byrd had slanted for two TD catches in LSU’s 22-point second half of regulation before Richardson put an Arkansas slant on the finishing touch.
“ I said, ‘ Man, he can run anything but a slant. I’m not going to let him run a slant, ’” Richardson recalled. “ Nobody gave us a chance, but the people in that meeting room, our coaches and players and the loyal fans that traveled with us kept believing. ”
Arkansas defensive coordinator Reggie Herring said, “ we just kept saying. ‘ Make just one play and it’s over. ’ It strung out longer than we wanted to, but thank God our offense had such heart against such a great, great defense and we finally came up with that one play. ”
All three OT possessions for each team started at the opposing defense’s 25 with a 2-point play after a touchdown mandatory starting with OT No. 3.
As they did from the second quarter, McFadden, fellow running backs Peyton Hillis (11 carries for 89 yards and 2 TDs and 5 catches for 62 yards and 2 TDs ), Felix Jones (4 carries for 85 yards and the 2-point game-winner ), and quarterback Casey Dick excelled in OT.
Dick was 10 of 18 for 94 yards and a TD and threw “ an RBI block, ” Nutt said on McFadden’s secondquarter 73-yard TD run.
Flynn, an abysmal 7 for 22 in the first half but on fire in the second finishing 22 of 47 for 209 yards and 3 TDs, scored on a 12-yard TD followed by Colt David’s PAT in the first OT. Dick (“ his best game as a Razorback, ” Nutt said ) completed a 13-yard pass on fourth-and 10 to Hillis. He then hit Hillis with a 10-yard TD on third-and-8 and Alex Tejada’s PAT sent the game to a second overtime.
Arkansas opened the second OT with the ball and scored in two plays, a 16-yard run by Jones and McFadden’s 9-yard TD and another Tejada PAT.
Flynn responded taking LSU 25 in 5 plays with running back Jacob Hester scoring from the 2 and David’s PAT tying it 42-42.
A McFadden 10-yard run to the 3 was key in Arkansas’ possession of the third OT. Hillis capped the drive with his 3-yard TD on first down.
McFadden, quarterbacking the WildHog most of the second half, wasn’t in the game when Jones ran the 2-point play.
“ We felt Felix was fresh, ” Nutt said. “ And it kind of throws their personnel group off when McFadden is out of the game. ”
Flynn had hit a 12-yard pass to Early Doucet before the 9-yard TD pass to LaFell was picked by Richardson 2 points shy of a tie.
Nutt admitted surprise his Razorbacks led, 7-6 at intermission after spending the first quarter backed up, starting with McFadden fumbling the game-opening kickoff.
All Arkansas allowed LSU for its great field position was two firstquarter field goals.
McFadden’s 16-yard TD capped a 97-yard drive, sparked by Jones ’ 31-yard run from the WildHog, for the 7-6 lead.
McFadden’s 73-yard TD and Hillis’ 65-yard TD from the WildHog shocked LSU in the third quarter with Hillis scoring again at 5: 06 in the fourth quarter on McFadden’s 24-yard pass.
McFadden’s hastily drawn-up 73-yard TD set the tempo.
“ They didn’t have a linebacker over our left tackle, ” Arkansas offensive coordinator David Lee said. “ So we put in a play at halftime that wasn’t in our game plan. That’s the one that Darren went 73 on and it unsettled them. ”
However Arkansas was unsettled by Flynn, who lost one TD pass because of an ineligible receiver downfield penalty, and Hester (28 carries for 126 yards ), until Richardson’s pick settled it once and for all.